A Place to Introduce Yourself

Hello all, I’m new to the site. I am 19 and have had social anxiety and depression since the age 15. I’ll keep it brief for now - I hate making introductions.

Looking forward to getting to know some of you better.
 

Diluted_Acid

Well-known member
Hey everyone, im 16, i've had social anxiety since i was 7. I know i came here a bit late, but still all i can hope to do is try maybe help some of you guys out and maybe make friends. Im actually ok with people in general although i suck around the girls, haha, and im doing really bad, socially at school. I hope to stop sweating all the time, and being too self centred.
 

siv

New member
Hello! I am recently new to this site and just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Travis and am 23 years old. I have been living with SA for about 10 years. I have a mild form of SA, but non-the-less, it's very annoying. Okay, well, I guess that is it for now! I am looking forward to being a member of this website. Take care! :)
 
wow

I'm SO HAPPY to have found this forum. As all of you know you feel very alone when you have SP.

I am a 28 year old male from Sweden now living in Sydney, Australia trying to get this *thing* sorted. I attended a psycologist back in Sweden who diagnosed me.
Now I'm trying to put my life back together WITHOUT the mask I have used all my life. This site is one of many steps to do so as I will be open and honest about my life here.

My biggest problem in interacting with people is interacting with woman. I have never been in a relationship with a woman. I have lived with a mask, not being truth to myself and other people most of my life. Hiding my fear by choosing not to interact at all, or giving myself up completely to be "loved". What has happened in those cases is that I have gotten used. Well, not any more. 8)


I wish you all well and hope to learn a lot here, as well as contribute to the site!
 

Alaina

Member
I'm so glad to have found this site. It's strange to see how many people there are out there who are like me, I never knew it!

Well ok a quick introduction, I'm 20 years old, a girl, and I live in England. I've been socially anxious for most of my life that I can remember. I hope to make some friends or at least contribute here, because I don't do so much of that in real life, and I guess I should really start doing it!
 

atomic

Member
Hi...
I'm male, almost 33 and from Essex UK, and have been living with SA for quite a few years... It's very comforting to finally discover a site with other people experiencing similar difficulties in life to me :)
 
Ok So Hi. I am a 26 year old married gal with 2 little boys. I am from everywhere in the U.S. I have always had anxiety but the social part of it didn't start till about the time my parents got divorced(9 yrs old) I didn't even realize what it was till very recent and its bad enough that I wont get treatment. I don't talk to people unless I know them, usually. And the only reason I know them is because I have to or through my husband. My husband is VERY social and I think he has kept my problem at bay. Unfortunatly he is in Iraq and I am seeing a very unhealthy trend in my little problem with him gone. He isn't even aware that I have this problem cause I hide it. I just pretend that I don't care about meeting people or that I didn't care about work. I think he will think less of me if he knew. It has ALWAYS effected my work habits. I was in the Army and I never went up in rank past the automatic promotions, because I would have to go in front of a promotion board and there was NO WAY I could do that. I definatly always worry that I will be thought of as stupid. So thats pretty much where I am at now. I am now a stay at home mom in a place that I hate with no friends and my husband is deployed. Yea not a good place really.
 

joshueg

Well-known member
Hi, jeallybeanorg. Well, i am from Spain but i'm logged in this forum, because i can speak English and i' m very interested in social phobia because i suffer from it too. I read your message and can understand how you may be feeling, with your husband very far away. A cousin of my is a u.s. soldier too and is now in Irak. That's a casuality :wink: .
Well, the reason i write you is in order to tell you that i think you have fulfilled many things in your life. You are married and have two children. That is not bad at all. I am 37 and am not married and have no friends, just work mates, but it is not the same thing.
Well, even if your husband is not home, you can write him mails or write him live with messenger. And you could try to visit your husband' s friends, i suppose they are your friends too. Well, i wish you the best. bye. :wink:
 

missninja

Member
:mrgreen: hi all,

I joined this site a few days ago so here is my bio'

I'm 33, female from Queensland, Australia.

After 13 yrs i have finally put some names to what i have been suffering from all these years.
sp/sa, gad, dep from the anxieties and now agorphobia is starting to rear it's ugly head! (these are all self diagnosed)

over the past 13yrs what started out as something minor took hold of my thought processes and altered them into a warped state they are in today.
my symptoms have come and gone but always to return with avengence.

when i was free of the warped thoughts and feelings i would not go to a doctor in fear of bringing the thoughts back into my head. it is like going to get some antibiotics just in case you get an infection.
when i had the anxieties etc, i have panic attacks in many places including the docs, so i would never go then either.

So i am now at a stage in my life where i have accepted this disorder and realised YES it does come back, no matter what.

My partner and i own a restuarant, i had a panic attack in front of customers, which left me in quite a crap state of mind.
i returned to work for the next few wks with panic consuming my every thought. one day i just felt so exhausted physically but predominantly emotionally that i felt i could no longer cope with trying to fix myself and run a business.

my extremely caring and loving partner said he agreed and thought i should take some time off because i was more important than work.
I was very afraid to do this as due to my anxieties i have avoidance issues. i felt i did need to concetrate on getting better but knew the longer i avoided work the worst the agoraphobia would get.........and so it has.

so this is where i find myself now, i ended work in mid nov 05.
i started to do alot of CBT through books and online etc and was moving my thought processes in to a new light. however with xmas and guests, partners children staying etc i have slacked off and am finding it hard to get back into it. I have also realised that i do need some medication to help me get a kick start.

so i feel like my feet are stuck in concrete, some how i have to get them unstuck and go to the doctors.
Alot of you may be thinking, and give the advice, just go to the doctors.
i would give this advice to anyone that i thought was sick too.

My problem is, that i seemed to have made it into such an issue due to the panic attacks etc. and i just don't know how to let go of my fear and just
f********* go.

anyway that is enough craparama for one day
thanx for listening
look forward to hearing your stories

ps. bugger i didn't realise it was this long! lol

:wink:
 

shae

Member
Hi,
I just joined 5 mins ago. I've belonged to a american based forum, and they are like family, but I've wanted to stretch my wings a little, for some time now. Get in touch with more fellow aussies, and maybe find more community based support, group therapy, so on, closer to me, I'm from country victoria, I'm from Ballarat.

Talk to you all later.

Shae
 

gatsby

Member
Hi everyone. I'm a 17-year old guy from Singapore who's been lurking around these forums without posting for some time now. I'm quite sure i suffer from social phobia of some sort but after getting to know more about fellow SPs from around the world I realize that my condition isn't that bad after all.

AFAIK i've always been a pretty shy and reserved guy, mainly because I've always been concerned (usually overly) with what other people thought of me. Whenever people didn't respond to me or seemed to ignore me (usually they were just something else and had no reason to talk to me) I got the impression that they were ignoring me. That they hated me or thought i was boring.

I'd always felt the symptoms of social phobia in one way or another, but it wasn't until I entered secondary school (middle high school) that my SP started getting worse. I was somewhat afraid of talking to other people - people I didn't know since I was in a new school. And so I didn't. I was the quietest guy in class. People hardly heard me talk. I did make a number of friends, since I was quite ok interacting one-on-one or in small groups with most people. But when placed in class, I shut off. I didn't have much of a problem answering a question in front of the class, but I was totally uncomfortable interacting in big groups. And since people tended to hang around in groups all the time, I couldn't find anybody to talk to. I failed to develop much in the way of social skills, and that made me feel out of place even further.

Being the quietist guy in class, I got the idea that everyone didn't talk to me because they hated me or thought I was really boring. That isolation made me feel even worse, becuase the more isolated i became, the more I didn't want to draw attention to myself, the more I became convinced that I was hated universally. And that worsened my SP.

I tried to tell myself to speak up, but it far easier to tell yourself to get rid of SP then to do it. In fact, its practically impossible without actually changing the way you think about yourself. Those old feelings of fear, of the rejection that you assume you see in the eyes of other people, all comes back in a sort of overwhelming way.

Now im 17, having just joined a junior college (or high school, if you're american). And the same pattern of self-isolation I saw happen to me in secondary school seems to be repeating itself. I don't think I suffer as badly as some of the other SP cases I've read in these forums. I perfomed in a band (I'm a guitarist, though not a very good one :( ) and i didn't feel as anxious as I thought i;d feel, and I'm quite okay making friends with other people so long as we aren't in a big group.

I'm sorry if its a little long. I just needed to get my experience with SP off my chest. I do have more to say actually, but I quite sure it'll bore you all to death reading the details. :? Well, all the best people. bye.
 

newshyguy

Well-known member
Hi

Hi, im new , and i dont wana bore you with my life experiences . You guys might have better things to do , so i just wana say that i can be shy sometimes and have this social anxiety, which keeps me from seen happier sides of life
anyways, yea , i believe one day, this thing , will be in the past and ill be able to live my present more vividly :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
much love to all shy homies and girls
believe, and dream for a better day
hope is the last thing you wana lose

(Ps im 18 and single, if any girl wants to know )
 

Waybuloo

Well-known member
Hi, im (relatively) new,

i've been posting here and there but i realised i have yet to formally introduce myself. I'm from Australia, 21 fem. Barely able to cope with going to uni. Now in the holidays, i get a long break in more ways than one, but the boredom is starting to overwelm me.

My phobia makes me hypersenstive - standin in line, talking to sales people, buying tickets, walking down the street etc. But my consciousness stems from more than just social phobia, with the added bonus of having BDD (something that makes me sensitive about my appearance in a nut shell).

I always feel drained of energy such as from walkin on the street. and Lately im startin to feel shorta breath. I have big problems with shaking (head, hands), and blushing.

anyway, thanks for listening, and looking forward to the posts!
 

limelight

Member
Hello. I've been lurkin here for a little over a month and I finally decided to join.

I've been shy all of my life, but it didn't used to be SP. Actually as a child I had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder... never diagnosed but now that I look back it seems pretty obvious.

When puberty hit my shyness seemed to progress to SP. Things that I used to manage now would provoke anxiety.

I'm a 17 year old guy now and I'm fed up with the anxious and uncomfortable feelings around other people. I've got an appointment with a psychiatrist in a month.

There is family history of anxiety disorders, mostly GAD, and I think my grandmother might have Paranoid personalty disorder.
 

Helen145

Member
hello

hello my name is Helen and i'm from Australia..I've been lurking for a little while

It's great that i can meet people with similar problems..i'm only 16 and i've had a problem ever since i started high school...

...ever since i was little i've been shy and i've always been known as one of the quiet ones in school..

..i've always had problems with my weight..i've lost weight then gained weight..right now i'm :roll: overweight for my height and age..this has always made me very self conscious and has led me away from people..because of the way i look i constantly feel that people are judging my appearance..who i'm with and what i eat
 

stateof911

New member
Hi,
my name is graham and i have had SP since i was a child,i am 35 now.
I am married with 4 children that i love more than life itself.Anyway i thought i would list a few things that have happened to me through my life that made me go deeper into my shell.
Age 7: my little brother and sister die (they were twins)
Age 8: I was at a family reunion and i overhear my father telling his family that i was alright but my older brother Chris was way better.
Age 9: I was very sick one night lying in bed and my mother heard me moaning so she came in the room picked me up by one arm and repeatly flogged me with the strap.This also happened at a cousins place while we all had the measels.
Age 10: My brother and i were playing with a rat trap,So our father with all his drunken wisdom sets the rat trap on our hands,in front of 8 other people we were staying with,He also beats mum up and commits adultry that night.
Age 12: after a football game my father throws me up against the wall hitting me and yelling at the top of his voice all because i wanted some lollies,this was done in front of my team mates.
By the age of 15 my parents didn't care anymore so i was making do with the clothes i had plus i had to cut my own hair.
Age 20: my brother Chris is killed,my parents get divorced and i am told it should have been me that died.
Alot of other things have happened that i dont like to talk about yet alone think about but my point is with this social phobia sometimes parents have to be held accountable for.
I dont remember one Hello or i love you but the one thing my parents taught me was how not to act.My kids get more hello and i love you in one afternoon than they ever gave me.
there i have had my 2 cents worth and thank god for a forum like this and the few posts i have read since becoming a member i really do feel your pain......
 

jessnz

Active member
hello
my name is jess(ica) and i'm 22 from NZ...
joined a few weeks ago but only just felt like introducing myself
i found this site by accident and i'm really glad i did, i thought i was alone and that no one else had these issues with social situations.

i've pretty much self diagnosed myself with SAD but I did have a doctor tell me that the chest pains i'd been getting were anxiety attacks a few years ago, but at the time i didn't really know what that meant, and didn't take much notice. Now everything makes sense and I know a little more about why I feel the way I do.

I've had the anxiety for as long as I can remember, but it's gotten worse in the past couple of years. I have a 15 month daughter and had over a year off work for maternity leave....i spent the whole time at home alone with not much contact with other people and it made things so much worse, i didn't want to answer the phone or the door, or go anywhere.
I'm back at work now and everything seems to be a challenge, I tense up inside when anyone talks to me and I get stabs in my chest when the phone rings. I can't handle parties or social events with people outside of my tiny circle of 'safe' people. I want it to go away but I don't know how.

I finally told my b/f about why I'm the way I am and he mocks it, and when I don't want to do something he laughs or gets angry because he doesn't understand and thinks it's all in my head.

Anyway this is longer than i intended it to be, just really wanted to say hello :)
 
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